In
September 2013 I had the opportunity to visit Israel and Jordan,
countries with supposedly low pholcid diversity due to mostly arid
conditions, as in the amazingly beautiful Negev Desert below.

Finding pholcids
(or any spiders) in such
environments is a challenge, and the fact that the widespread and
possibly introduced Holocnemus pluchei was just
about everywhere did
not make things easier. Nevertheless, we managed to collect Artemaat
various localities, and this poorly known genus was one of our main
goals during this trip. Shown below is a possibly new species (left)
together with a Hoplopholcus (probably cecconii, right).

A short side-trip to Jordan allowed me to visit some
exceptional places like Wadi Rum, Petra, Wadi Hasa, and Wadi Mujib
(left). Localities like Wadi Mujib and caves at the Israeli side of the
Dead Sea provided some of the lowest
pholcid records, at about 370 and 380 m below sea level.

I owe thanks to
Efrat Gavish-Regev for inviting me to this trip, for her meticulous
preparations and relentless efforts to make sure everything ran as
smoothly as possible. To Efrat and Shlomi Aharon for the great time we
spent in the field.